Quotes

Speaking in 1990: "I have a problem ... well I don't have a problem, but Brands Hatch for example have a problem with company days, because every time I go there I take passengers round in one of their sports racers, I reduce my own passenger lap record - and they go hairy because it's wearing their car out. But I can't drive any other way, and I never have been able to. If I get into a car on a circuit I drive as fast as I can, that's it!"

[Stirling Moss: James, they've changed the regulations concerning the air boxes and the wings and yet you're still extremely fast. How do you do it?] Big balls. [Moss (laughing): Oh forget it.] Can't you print that? [...] But it's true!

[to fellow F1 driver Patrick Depailler] The first thing you must do is bloody well learn how to drive!

[on routinely throwing up before races] I was sick with tremendous nerve pressure. But that was basically because I was driving my own car and if I crunched it then I was out of money and there was no way I could repair the car. So it was fear of my future on the financial side and on the job-security side. Nothing to do with danger.

[interviewer asking what his Silverstone win means to him] Nine points, 20,000 dollars and a lot of happiness. And can I grab that cigarette off you?

[on why he thinks women are so attracted to racing drivers] The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel and the more alive you are.